Mass-Raster

Mass–Raster is a continuation of themes and processes that have been present within Leigh Martin’s practice since his Dissolve series of paintings from the mid 1990s, through to more recent bodies of work: Shallow Depth 2012 and Silenced 2014.

During this period, Martin’s works have been guided by an interest in sonic phenomena, in particular, field recordings of sound waves as they resonate within various environments. These resonances educe an awareness of the spaces between things. These are ‘between spaces’ that cannot be so easily represented, but which are routinely referred to as sites of silence, nothingness, of the infinite, ether. By employing differing material and immaterial (actions) approaches, Martin continues to investigate the spaces of alternation between materially immanent phenomena and translation.

In the case of the Mass-Raster, the viscosity of the paint and the materiality (texture) of the ‘ground’, whether it be paper, panel or canvas, combine through a highly regulated, metronomic process of layering. Paint is applied to traditional watercolour paper using a screen-printing squeegee. A squeegee is employed, since its conventional function is to apply a film of ink or paint as evenly as possible, and as such it is not a drawing tool used to construct a sense of space or gesture. This is a uniform application from top to bottom, left to right, which is then reversed and repeated multiple times over a period of weeks. What results is varying sequences of repetitive, wave-like latitudinal and longitudinal striations which map the surface of the paper from edge to edge. Numerous formal, material and environmental factors, such as room temperature and the porous nature of the paper, then determine how the image develops. The interaction between these various elements leaves a trace which is created by, and records, the actions and materials employed. The resulting residue delivers inflections which pulse and tremor. With each pass and touch of the squeegee, the film of paint is affected by the resistance brought about by qualities intrinsic to the paper. The scraping action of the squeegee tears fragments of the paper’s deckled edge, which in turn mixes with the paint. With each consecutive pass a raking effect is produced.

Even though the works are acoustically silent, the visual inflection is one of noise. Alternating vibratos, sonic textures, glitches and timbres resonate both within and on the surface. The resulting visual inflections refer to digital rasters which are witnessed when digital signals on television or computer screens become confused forming a white noise or static. These are visual glitches which interfere with technical logic producing a silent and formless poesis.

raster |ˈrastər|nounrectangular pattern of parallel scanning lines followed by the electron beam on a television screen or computer monitor’

ORIGIN mid 20th cent.: from German Raster, literally ‘screen,’ from Latin rastrum ‘rake,’ from ras- ‘scraped,’ from the verb radere